TOKYO (AP) – People in a city in southwestern Japan have been attacked by monkeys who are trying to snatch babies, biting and tearing their flesh and sneaking into preschools.
The attacks, which have killed 58 people since July 8, are getting so bad the Yamaguchi city council hired a special unit to hunt the animals with tranquilizer guns.
Monkeys are not interested in food, so the traps have not worked. They have been aimed mainly at children and the elderly.
“They are so smart and tend to sneak up and attack from behind, often grabbing your legs,” city official Masato Saito said Wednesday.
When confronting a monkey, the instructions are: Don’t make eye contact, make yourself look as big as possible, such as by spreading your coat, and then back away as quietly as possible without making any sudden movements, Saito said.
A woman was attacked by a monkey while hanging her clothes on the porch. Another victim showed her bandaged toes. They were surprised and scared by how big and fat the monkeys were.
The monkeys terrorizing the community are Japanese macaques, which are often seen peacefully bathing in the hot springs.
A male monkey, 49 centimeters (1.6 feet) tall and weighing 7 kilograms (15 pounds), was caught by the team with the tranquilizer gun on Tuesday. He was tried by various trials as one of the attacking monkeys and was killed.
But more attacks were reported after the capture.
No one has been seriously injured so far. But they have all received hospital care. In some cases, ambulances were called.
Although Japan is industrialized and urban, much of the archipelago’s land is mountains and forests. Rare attacks on people by bears, wild boars or other wild animals have occurred, but generally not by monkeys.
No one seems to know why the attacks have occurred and where exactly the monkey troop came from is still unclear.
“I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life,” Saito said.
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Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter